INHABITAT: Can you tell us a little bit about the Tiny House Family's home and its features?
Hari: Our tiny home is 8’ x 21’ with a full loft. The loft has 3’ of head space. We built two separate lofts for a bit of privacy. There are areas of the house

INHABITAT: Can you tell us a little bit about the Tiny House Family's home and its features?

Hari: Our tiny home is 8’ x 21’ with a full loft. The loft has 3’ of head space. We built two separate lofts for a bit of privacy. There are areas of the house dedicated to office, living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and wardrobe. Appliances and fixtures include a 12 gallon hot water heater under the kitchen counter, an apartment-sized range, a large hood (which vents the house in minutes), an under-counter refrigerator, a built-in couch and shoe bench (both of which open up for storage), a toilet, a shower, a hand sink and a kitchen sink. Each family member has his/her own cabinet for clothing. The windows and full-light door help bring lots of natural light inside making a connection to the outdoors.

INHABITAT: Can you tell us a little bit about the Tiny House Family‘s home and its features?

Hari: Our tiny home is 8’ x 21’ with a full loft. The loft has 3’ of head space. We built two separate lofts for a bit of privacy. There are areas of the house dedicated to office, living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and wardrobe. Appliances and fixtures include a 12 gallon hot water heater under the kitchen counter, an apartment-sized range, a large hood (which vents the house in minutes), an under-counter refrigerator, a built-in couch and shoe bench (both of which open up for storage), a toilet, a shower, a hand sink and a kitchen sink. Each family member has his/her own cabinet for clothing. The windows and full-light door help bring lots of natural light inside making a connection to the outdoors.

INHABITAT: What made your family decide to build your tiny home?

Hari: It fit into our long-term plan to build a small mortgage-free homestead. After saving for and buying the land, the well and septic, and putting in a driveway, we weren’t left with a lot of money. We were also still in Florida, but we wanted to start building. Building on a flatbed trailer made it possible to start building while still in Florida. It was also possible to build to completion even with our small grubstake. Building tiny also made it easy to find salvaged/overstock/leftover construction materials. When you only need 12 sq. feet of tile, and 100 sq. ft. of flooring, it’s easy to find deals.

INHABITAT: How much did the home cost and how did you keep prices down?

Hari: $12,000. We kept costs down by salvaging, using Craigslist and doing all of the labor ourselves.

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16 Comments

I love your tiny home! But I am worried about that tree off your deck. It looks like an Empress Tree and if so, you may want to pull it out of there immediately! I say this as I live in an apartment complex built back in the early 70\\\’s, with many of these trees. Slowly they have had to be replaced at often quite a cost as their roots go straight to any nearby plumbing, breaking through and causing many expensive hassles. Yes they do grow into great big beautiful shade trees, but even upon chopping down the wood is useless as when it dries it just crumbles, no using to build with nor burn. In the fall they drop inch plus seed pod clusters and very large leaves. A maple or fruit bearing tree may be better. I just don\\\’t want to see you dealing with such a major hassle.

I keep coming back to the idea of building and living in a small home. Three bedrooms and all that go with it is just too much at this stage in life. On the other hand I’m way old enough to want to throw out all my creature comforts.
Best of luck to you and your family.

Well done, hey it’s small even by Japanese standards but I like the finish you put on the interior. You’ve proved that good things really do come in small packages. This is the future of human habitation on our Earth. It’s a very frugal use of resources but you’re all smiling so what really is the cost? Thanks for the look (at my future).

mo0oz37December 17, 2013 at 4:28 am

i am sara i am from america i am 11 years old and i want to do a smallwood house with my friends we want to made it of our salf and we want to now a good place to do a smallwood house to set inside it and play with out bathroom and foodroom an thank you

If Mayor Bloomberg would let me I’d put tiny houses on every rooftop in Manhattan for affordable housing. 450 sq.ft. is about the size of an average 1bdroom in NYC. I raised 4 teenagers and 2 babies in one. BUT we had the entire city at our fingertips so if someone wanted to escape they could just go to the stairwell or the roof – or in my case the corner coffee shop.

AnthonyRizzoOctober 5, 2012 at 10:31 am

This family of 4 has 2 youngish children and while admirable to see a family of more than 1 or 2 living in a tiny dwelling I am curious to know if a family of 5 or 6 with teenage children could make a go of a similar dwelling and if so what kind of configuration would be necessary to create private space for all family members. I imagine bunk bed nooks with sliding French frosted glass doors on each level for privacy would probably work well especially if the nooks have a couple of built in shelves and a bedside accessible nightlight. By the way, brilliant job on the use of salvaged material. It looks very warm and inviting.

NatkarchSeptember 27, 2012 at 5:30 pm

I bet Archer will be a talanted architect

SarahMarsAugust 1, 2012 at 11:26 am

I honestly think this is fabulous! Where I live, I see these ridiculously sized homes that make my toes curl, and not in a good way. What is the need for these monster homes? I give this family a kudos! I hope more and more people will realize just how much more efficient this is!

tinyloverJuly 15, 2012 at 7:05 pm

I love this article, and I love this family’s bravery for embracing what most of North America thinks is an embarrassment. I agree with the comment about Hong Kong and the rest of the world – this space is a palace to most of the people on the planet. Plumbing? Heat? Waterproof? Safe?? Shame on us.

carleyLHKJune 27, 2012 at 12:41 pm

This maybe unusual in the USA but the average flat size in Hong Kong is just over 450 sq feet. With many flats for entire families being well below that. Traveling makes me reflect the size of homes people think is necessary, normal and expected is really created by culture not facts.

Good to see the benefits of efficiency and having a light impact being taken up by this family!

handsonMay 31, 2012 at 3:50 am

I had a 16×24 cabin on 5acres until the downturn. Your place looks great. Congratulations on living mortgage free!

tmoonMay 5, 2012 at 6:37 pm

The plant in image 5.. is it a sunflower or a young Paulownia tree? If it is Paulownia, they are highly invasive in the Southeastern U.S. Please look up information on it and remove it to maintain your area’s native habitat.

~~ lovely home, by the way, hoping to do something similar! ~~

teacher2May 2, 2012 at 8:37 am

Thanks for sharing this story!

bushdameMay 1, 2012 at 11:46 am

Neither the photos nor the story are loading, it would be great to see and read this inspirational story….thanks!